mfd101

DT's problem is that he simply doesn't understand the concept on which international relations short of war is conducted, namely: Negotiation ⇒ Win/Win.

He thinks that all meetings or discussions lead or should lead to: I win/You lose (because I have the biggest thingamee in the neighbourhood). You might think he would have learned from the outcome of the TransPacific Trade deal: Usofa announces they won't join the other 11 or 12 nations unless they rewrite the draft in Usofa's interest. Grinning triumphantly: So there, I don't like these multi things anyway. But the others, lead by Japan & Oz, decide to go ahead anyway, leaving Usofa in the cold & the Chinese laughing. So DT says: Um, acherly, ah how's about um praps we might um join up after all, but you'll have to change the rules in our favour! To which the dozen or so reply (ever so politely): Get lost!

41 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

 

Just how do you see a compromise? We're going to normalize relations with this criminal against humanity? A compromise is we protect him from the retribution of his citizenry and he gets to choose where he spends his life in exile on our dime.

Take the deals done with the Soviet Union after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. It took a couple of decades to get assorted agreements in place (communications, missile reductions, agreement on how to manage issues in future etc). Yes, negotiations, compromises & deals can be conducted with people you despise when your survival is at stake.

As it is for several million human beings in SK, NK and (now apparently) California & no doubt places in between

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Re some comments made above:

 

--Trump and his various actions have undoubtedly strained and hurt the U.S.'s international standing and its relations with various allies. Trump's public and borderline racist rants against Mexico, pulling out of the Climate accord, planning to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, cozying up with Putin, etc etc.

 

--However, I don't see any indication that this latest turn with the called off North Korea summit in some way harms the U.S.'s relationships with either South Korea or Japan. They both know what it's like trying to deal with, and make any deal, with North Korea. And they haven't been any better at it than the U.S. has. And I see no sign that Japan & S.K., Trump notwithstanding, would prefer to be in China's camp, none whatsoever.

  

I guess that if you live in Seoul, relying on Usofa seems like a less and less useful insurance policy. And not just since the DTs arrived on the scene.

Being in China's camp is not, from SK's point of view, and no doubt Japan's, the same thing as no longer entirely in Usofa's. SK & Japan are learning/relearning to stand on their own feet. And liddle ol' Oz is inching along unsteadily in the same direction.

2 hours ago, Odysseus123 said:

Well...only if they are shot in an humane way..

 

Seriously tho' the retirement age is now 67 and most of the people I know of that age are still in a serious amount of debt.

 

Strangely enough,many have benefited by the influx of immigrants driving up house prices in the cities to astronomical levels because they sell their homes and move to coastal areas (in my case) way north of Sydney.These areas then become a kind of sunny God's Waiting Room.

 

The rather beautiful valley that I live in has virtually no intensive agriculture left as the Australian yeoman farmers as a group have been pretty much destroyed.

Your valley is very nice. And moving from Sydney to the countryside is like me moving from Canberra to Surin province: a smart move financially but of course it's a one-way trip, and has many social, cultural & psychological advantages (as well as some social, cultural & psychological costs).

But if people are still "in a serious amount of debt" at 67, they really haven't organized their life very well, it seems to me.

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That is all out of date thinking. AI and automation is going to make the vast majority of the population unemployed. Immigration is the last thing they need now. The future is in reducing the population as fast as possible, to reduce the need to pay out vast sums on supporting the no longer employable.

I'm think voluntary euthanasia on demand and no longer paying people to have children along with free contraception and abortion on demand.

Australia just acquired 50,000 new unemployed after the car industry ceased to exist.

Great ideas there. Perhaps all retirees, including expats, should be taken out at dawn and shot.

49 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

Are  you saying  Australia is actively seeking immigration?

 

That's news to me.

You haven't been watching the news for the last 30+ years?

Australia has a higher proportion of its population born overseas (some 30%) than any other 'Western' country. The suppliers are (in approx order) UK, China, India, NZ ... at a rate that has consistently been 150,000-200,000 every year since the 1990s. A great source of Oz prosperity and diversification of its economy.

The economy now is largely a service economy (61%), based on financial, health & education services. Mining is still large, at 7%. Agriculture is 2% of GDP, some 9% of exports.

46 minutes ago, Sam Lin said:

Ok, just ignore the kanji tattoos, stickers, and shirts popular in many western countries, or the blatant cultural appropriation and stereotyping in movies, because they can't possibly be offensive to other cultures. Sorry if it doesn't fit the narrative that the west is more cultured and aware.

Yes, ignorance across cultures is of course worldwide. You can see all sorts of funny uses of the English language in China [eg on the Great Wall outside Beijing: "Heart cerebral disease sufferer ascend the Great Wall to please watch for"]. And Westerners in Thailand offend Buddhist sensibilities every day of the year ...

2 hours ago, jayboy said:

 

With respect it’s not a very intelligent comparison or one rooted in historical understanding.The history of anti Semitism in Poland is a long - many centuries- and dreadful one entangled in cultural values and customs.It was not likely to disappear after most of Poland’s Jews had been exterminated.

Mahathir and Malaysia are completely different.Very few Jews and no history of anti Semitism.The bile that Mahathir came out with can unfortunately be found in much of the Islamic world - a potpourri of paranoia, jealousy,hatred of Israel and theological atavism.

I strongly suspect that Mahathir doesn’t take it all that seriously.He’s an intelligent man but also an obstinate one.He’s not going to start apologising now.




Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

I don't think we're disagreeing. My point is that, everywhere in the world, antisemitism - whether of the East European variety or the Middle Eastern or the kind of Upper Crusty condescension I noticed in my Kiwi/UK MIL many decades ago - occurs mostly quite independently of the local presence or absence of any actual flesh'nblood Jews. It has become - perhaps by different processes in different places over different periods - a deep prejudice in many people's psyches, bearing of course no relation to any reality one could could poke a stick at. Mahatir's venting on the subject seems no different from just about any other case one can think of. The fact that he is manifestly a highly intelligent man simply makes it all the weirder & the nastier in his particular case.

19 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I get it. So you think the good he represents overrides his rabid antisemitism. Your call. The truth is that Malaysia is one of the most Jew hating nations on the planet and weirdly has almost no Jews living there. Go figure. 

You don't need Jews to be antisemitic, as Poland demonstrated with its anti-Jewish pogroms in 1945 & 1946 (when there were about 5000 Jews still surviving in Poland from a pre-war total of over 3,000,000). Visit Poland today, or Hungary, and you'll see that nothing much has changed by way of those sentiments ...

Usofa is becoming steadily less relevant to the rest of the world. We've already seen that with the Trans-Pacific Trade agreement - when DT pulled out, the other 11 nations decided to just keep right on without him, and when DT hinted a few weeks ago that perhaps he might like to join after all but only if the rules were changed in Usofa's favour, the 11 basically said: Get real! [Sounds a bit like the Brits & EU!]

In Syria it's obviously not Usofa running the show, but Turkey, Iran & Russia - who now meet regularly to coordinate matters. In fairness to DT, of course Obama's vanishing red line set this up.

Even on the Korean peninsula, it's Sth & Nth K that have gotten together on their own initiative, although DT's arm waving no doubt helped. His now-planned meeting with Little Kim is mostly just face-saving symbolism to begin the process of genuine peacemaking & edging Usofan troops out.

And close to home, all of ASEAN is increasingly sucking up to the Chinese. Usofan performance on the Sth China Sea problem has been hopeless over the last several years. The only way to get Chinese troops & missiles out now would be by open warfare, which isn't going to happen. So all the neighbours have now to live with a very large & uncomfortably bossy new neighbour ...

34 minutes ago, blazes said:

 

Shareholders?  What about the sodding workers, mate?

In the more advanced & civilized parts of the 'Western' world eg Australia, the people you so generously refer to as "sodding workers" mostly consider themselves 'middle class', live in self-owned & mortgaged suburban houses, and are often shareholders in companies large and small, and - with universal superannuation cover mandated by the federal government - are in fact all shareholders in property & companies both domestically & internationally.

Has this solved all of life's problems? No, but it's a start.

1 hour ago, KiwiKiwi said:

 

<sigh>

Wow, Grayling's bit is a humdinger. Very good!

As a homosexual and cultural conservative all my life I have tended to be sympathetic towards at least the Catholic church on many issues, but Grayling certainly sticks the knife in rather effectively ...

2 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

please could you quote the example so I may express an opinion

No. 16 above.

11 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

Now now

He is entitled to his opinion as much as you are entitled to yours

What you are not entitled to do is abuse people for holding an opinion

Why do you do it?

Do you not believe in the freedom of expression?

And Jingthing's reference to the 'black & white' example? You would accept that that is an opinion that anyone is entitled to have and to express?

2 hours ago, Proboscis said:

And if you don't believe me, ask the next person from the Irish Republic you meet, "Do you want a united Ireland?" S/He may say "Yes." Then ask that person, "Are you prepared to pay an extra 20% in taxes that it will cost you to have a united Ireland?" The answer will be as expected a resounded "No.!"

Yes but everyone takes that approach to everything regarding government: We want MORE services! How much are you willing to pay for them? NOTHING!